Four Emotions
by MaybeWeAre
Summary: Written for the LJ OUAT kinkmeme: "After Regina returns to the group, Emma is eager to let her know that she successfully used magic and their lessons helped to trap Pan's shadow. Bonus if Emma admits that thinking of Regina made her magic work."


Based on a prompt from the LJ OUAT Kinkmeme: "After Regina returns to the group, Emma is eager to let her know that she successfully used magic and their lessons helped to trap Pan's shadow. Bonus if Emma admits that thinking of Regina made her magic work."

* * *

"I'm so glad you're back." Emma fell into step beside Regina at the back of the group. Regina simply raised an eyebrow, and Emma gestured at her parents and suitors as they made their way towards Pan's camp. "I can't take any more of all that nonsense."

Emma couldn't be sure, but it looked like Regina was fighting back a smile. "Trouble in paradise?" she asked, masking whatever it was she was hiding beneath her usual snark.

Now Emma was fighting a smile, too. She loved that tone on Regina, and the way the brunette's nose scrunched just a bit when she went sarcastic. "Hook and Neal are being such idiots," she said, noticing one and then the other casting a glance back at her. It was exhausting, having them always watching her. Having them watch each other watching her. "The shadow was right there and they were too busy fighting over the fucking lighter. They nearly got us all killed."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Regina crossed her arms as they kept walking. "Neverland seems to bring out the teenage fools in everyone." She nodded towards Snow and Charming, who kept stumbling as they tried to walk through the thick foliage with their arms around each other.

"But not us, huh?"

Regina allowed herself to smile now. "Miss Swan, you have never been anything _but_ a teenage fool."

"Watch who you're calling a fool." Emma grinned, eager to tell Regina what she'd done. "I saved the day, after all. After they lost the lighter I lit the candle myself. With magic," she added proudly.

Regina glanced at Emma, and the blonde was happy to note that she looked pleased. "Well, I suppose those two give you plenty to be angry about. Lots of inspiration."

"I didn't think about them. I thought…" Emma thought back to that morning, to the moment in which she'd waved fire into being. The feelings coursing through her weren't anger at all. Frustration, maybe, but certainly not anger. Something just as heavy as anger but not as dark. "I thought about you."

"Oh." Regina went tight-lipped again, the momentary pride in her pupil gone. Emma winced as the walls, the distance that Neverland had broken down sprang back up. As Regina imperceptibly curled into herself. A tiny difference, but Emma felt it.

"I wasn't angry!" Emma corrected quickly. "No anger. It was something else."

"Fear can also be a powerful motivator." Regina smirked, but stayed closed off, her arms tighter across her chest. "Do I frighten you, Emma?"

Yes. Always. But Emma had stopped fearing for her life and started feeling a different sort of fear. The cold that overtook her just a few days ago when she reluctantly left Regina to die in the mines. "I was too busy being afraid about the crazy shadow things to be scared of you."

"That doesn't entirely answer my question." Regina eyed Emma up and down, and the blonde shivered despite the humid heat. "But there are four emotions that fuel magic. Anger, fear…" Regina glanced ahead at the group again, making sure they were out of earshot. "Desire and love."

Emma closed her eyes for a moment, not wanting to look at Regina or the men or her parents or anyone. Regina made her feel all of those things, sometimes all at once. The feeling that morning had been somewhere between lust and something more emotional. Something deeper.

Regina grabbed her arm and Emma opened her eyes to see that she'd nearly tripped over a rock. "Careful," Regina said, her voice surprisingly soft. She didn't let go.

Emma glanced down at Regina's hand. It was the first time she'd had Regina's touch on her bare skin, and she could feel the tingle of magic. "I was thinking about you," Emma said, not daring to get any more specific. This wasn't the time or the place. And if it was love… Emma didn't talk about that. She hadn't told Neal she loved him until he was dying, and she'd never said those words to anyone else but Henry.

Their eyes met and lingered, color rising in Emma's cheeks. "The four emotions are overly simplistic, anyway," Regina said in a low voice. "Things are much more complicated than that."

"Complicated," Emma echoed. If she had to sum up her feelings in one word, that would certainly be it. "I feel a million things about you, Regina."

Regina stroked her hand down Emma's arm, giving the blonde's hand a squeeze before breaking contact altogether. "Me, too."


End file.
